KUALA LUMPUR – Even though she does not hold any political office, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s public life as the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been criticised as being extravagant and excessive.
She is often depicted in satire and caricatures with a larger-than-life persona, wearing colourful baju kurung, an outrageous diamond ring on her finger, and holding a Birkin handbag.
Although she rarely appears in public events after Barisan Nasional lost the general election in 2018, the public remains interested in her comings and goings, particularly her corruption trial.
Rosmah, 70, is set to know the verdict this morning at the Kuala Lumpur High Court – if found guilty, she can file for a stay of execution pending the disposal of her appeal. And if she is exonerated, the prosecution has 14 days to file an appeal against the ruling.
She has been accused of one count of soliciting RM187.5 million in bribes and two charges of receiving RM6.5 million as gratification.
Before judge Mohamed Zaini Mazlan reads out his judgment, he will have to hear the merits of her last-minute application to recuse him from the trial. As such, her case may be heard, retried, or decided by another high court judge.
Aside from this, she has repeatedly filed applications to recuse senior deputy public prosecutor Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram and to nullify her trial. However, none of her attempts were successful.
Throughout the 44-day trial before Zaini, a total of 23 prosecution witnesses were called while the defence served up two witnesses, including Rosmah.
‘Can I advise you something?’
One of the most talked-about incidents during her trial was the prosecution’s bid to admit an audio clip and transcript of her purported conversation with Najib as evidence.
The audio recording, previously released by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and believed to be part of a conversation between Rosmah and Najib, was played by the prosecution in the trial when former education minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid testified.
Zaini allowed the audio recording, marked as IDP36, and its transcription, marked as IDP163, to be admitted as evidence, after the prosecution in its submission urged the court to revisit its application and to review the court’s earlier ruling on the prosecution’s request to admit these two items as its exhibits.
Previously, the prosecution had attempted to admit these two items as its exhibits during the course of the trial, and both parties had, on December 11, 2020, submitted on the admissibility of these items.
On December 23 last year, Rosmah told the court that the content of the audio recording was “utter rubbish” and that there was no scientific investigation to prove it was her voice.
Gopal said several witnesses in the trial, including Mahdzir and Rosmah’s former aide Datuk Rizal Mansor, testified in court that those were the voices of Rosmah and Najib.
Previously, Sri Ram said she had an “overbearing nature” and the “ability to influence decisions in the public sector”.
Former aide turned star witness
Another scintillating moment in her trial was when Rizal turned star witness for the prosecution, even though he was previously jointly charged with Rosmah.
On June 8, 2020, Rizal was acquitted by the high court here of four charges of soliciting and receiving bribes for himself and Rosmah amounting to RM6.5 million.
During the defence stage, Rosmah had repeatedly maintained that Rizal was never her personal aide, but a special functions officer on contract in the Prime Minister’s Department attached to the “First Lady Of Malaysia (FLOM) division”.
“He (Rizal) carried out the duties of a media officer in the First Lady of Malaysia division under the Prime Minister’s Department during his service in the department. I wish to stress here that I did not have a special officer at all,” she told the court on October 5.
She also accused Rizal of going missing during office hours and said that she was unhappy with the quality of his work.
“I often heard complaints by Datuk Seri Siti Azizah Sheikh Abod (FLOM special officer) and other officers of Rizal’s lazy attitude. I am not close with Rizal,” she said.
Siti Azizah was the other defence witness. Najib was supposed to be the third defence witness but the defence decided against it at a later date.
First lady conundrum
On October 7, Rosmah told the court that she was not given the title “First Lady of Malaysia”, being there for administrative purposes, nor was she given an office in the Prime Minister’s Office.
“I am not sure if Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali or my mother-in-law, Tun Rahah Mohamed Noah, held the title,” she said, adding that she was “prepared to sacrifice myself for my husband” on criticism hurled at her on social media.
“I had to take it because I am the wife of a politician.”
However, she said she had a busy schedule of conducting several social and welfare-oriented national programmes, including early childhood initiative Permata.
Rosmah is represented by Datuk Jagjit Singh and Datuk Akberdin Abdul Kader, and was charged on November 15, 2018 and told to enter her defence on February 18, 2021.
On the first count, she was charged with dishonestly soliciting for herself, made through Rizal, a gratification of RM187.5 million, which is 15% of the value of the contract for the project, from Jepak Holdings former managing director Saidi Abang Samsudin.
It was as an inducement to help the company (Jepak Holdings) to secure the hybrid photovoltaic solar system integrated project and maintenance and operation of genset/diesel for 369 rural schools in Sarawak, worth RM1.25 billion through direct negotiation from the Education Ministry.
She was charged with committing the offence at Lygon Cafe, G-24, Ground Floor, Sunway Putra Mall, 100, Jalan Putra, Chow Kit, here between March and April 2016.
On the second count, Rosmah was charged with dishonestly receiving for herself RM1.5 million from Saidi for the same purpose at her residence in Jalan Langgak Duta, Taman Duta, here on September 7, 2017.
On April 10, 2019, Rosmah was charged again in the sessions court here with accepting gratification of RM5 million from Saidi through Rizal, for helping Jepak Holdings to secure the same project on December 20, 2016, at the Seri Perdana residence in Putrajaya.
The charges are framed under Section 16(a)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act, which provides for imprisonment of up to 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the amount of the gratification or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction. – The Vibes, September 1, 2022
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